Jason Kelce expressed regret Monday night for choosing to “greet hate with hate” after spiking a fan’s cellphone outside Beaver Stadium before the Ohio State-Penn State game Saturday in University Park, Pa.
Kelce, the former Philadelphia Eagles center who is now a member of ESPN’s “Monday Night Countdown” crew, was on campus to take part in a “College GameDay” event for the network. In video footage circulating on social media of Kelce greeting fans outside the stadium, a man can be heard shouting an anti-gay slur in reference to Kelce’s brother, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, for “dating Taylor Swift.”
Jason Kelce then turns around and grabs a phone out of someone’s hand — presumably that of the heckler — and smashes it to the ground. Further video shows Kelce in a heated exchange with the man, using the same slur back at him multiple times.
The Penn State University Police and Public Safety Department is investigating the incident.
Kelce addressed the matter at the start of Monday night’s broadcast, before his brother Travis’ Chiefs team hosted the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
“I think everybody has seen on social media everything that took place this week,” Kelce said. “Listen, I’m not happy with anything that took place. I’m not proud of it. In a heated moment I chose to greet hate with hate and I just don’t think that’s a productive thing, I really don’t. I don’t think that it leads to discourse and it’s the right way to go about things. In that moment I fell down to a level that I shouldn’t have.
“So I think the bottom line is, I try to live my life by the golden rule, that’s what I’ve always been taught. I try to treat people with common decency and respect, and I’m gonna to keep doing that moving forward even though I fell short this week.”
ESPN declined to comment for this article.
Jason Kelce is a seven-time Pro Bowl center who played all 13 of his NFL seasons with the Eagles before retiring this past offseason. The outgoing, shaggy-bearded Philadelphia icon has become well known nationally in recent years, appearing in countless TV commercials and hosting the “New Heights” podcast with his brother.
Travis Kelce is a nine-time Pro Bowler who has been dating pop music superstar Swift for more than a year.
